Big Rocks/Little Rocks: A Learning Parable

Learning Objectives: Students will be able to:

• Evaluate whether they are devoting enough time to the top priorities in their lives or getting distracted by the less important
• Organize more efficiently their time

Core Student Success Skills: Organization Critical Thinking

Materials: One clear container, three rocks, sand enough to fill the container, picture of water. (Rice can be used to replace sand, but it will absorb the water).

Context within the Course: This exercise is helpful near the beginning of the course, perhaps about three weeks in. By this time students may be struggling with making their course work a priority and may even be beginning to fall behind in their work. This demonstration can be a strong visual image to help them sort out their priorities.

Instructions:

1. First, have students write down their top three priorities in their lives at the moment. 
2. Next show students the clear container. Tell them that this container represents their life. There is lots of room, and they can choose what to fill it up with. 
3. Next, show the sand/rice. These represent some of the many ways in which they spend their time. Ask students for some activities they spend time on. Perhaps ask how they spent their last day off. Poor a little sand into the container each time a student mentions something. Then, show students the three big rocks. Explain that some priorities take a lot more of our time than others if we are going to be successful in that area. 
4.  Ask the class for suggestions for what some of these important/time consuming activities might be. For each suggestion that fits this criteria, place a rock in the container. Be sure there is enough sand/rice in the container so that all three rocks do not fit. Explain that sometimes we spend too much time on activities that are not really all that important which doesn’t leave us enough time for the important. Too much time watching sports on TV, shopping, partying, facebook, etc. may mean that we don’t have time to meet our family obligations or complete our college assignments. 
5. Remove the rocks and sand and start over. This time place the big rocks in first, next add the sand/rice. The funny thing is, it all fits this way. 
6. Now pour in some water to show that there is even room for more. This demonstration is designed to emphasize that when we make time for our most important priorities, there is still time for the other parts of our life. There is still time for watching sports on TV, shopping, partying, facebook, etc. We just need to put first things first. Now ask how many had their college education as one of the top three priorities. Ask these students why this made it into the top three. For those who did not include college, ask them why not. A story about a student who had changed their priorities to include college works well at this point. Often students are unwilling to loose work hours in order to complete assignments. A story of a student who did so and was successful can be helpful for auditory learners.